The RTO Show "Let's talk Rent to Own"
The RTO Show is designed to give everyone a laid back view into the Rent to Own industry with great interviews and compelling discussion topics on new and changing ideas. All seen through the eyes of a host that has almost 2 decades of experience in the ever changing and growing landscape of Rent to Own. Host Pete Shau talks about RTO topics with a bit of laughter and a hint of sarcasm.
The RTO Show "Let's talk Rent to Own"
Navigating Economic Turmoil in RTO w/ Jason Winters
What if you could navigate economic turmoil without sacrificing essential services? Join us on this episode of The RTO Show, where Jason Winters from Impact Holdings unpacks the effects of today's economic climate on the rent-to-own (RTO) industry. We break down the rising costs of living and how RTO offers a lifeline for those in financial straits. Jason reveals the hidden operational costs that go into maintaining these critical services—think free deliveries, no-credit-check payment plans, and more—debunking the myth that RTO is overpriced.
Ever wonder about the real cost of long-term financial commitments? We dissect the often overlooked interest rates on mortgages and car payments and draw compelling comparisons to the transparency and flexibility of RTO options. Providing unique insights into customer service, we discuss the significance of personalized interactions in smaller businesses versus the impersonal nature of big-box retailers. Our conversation sheds light on the stigma around using RTO services and stresses their vital role for individuals facing financial hardship, ensuring they can still access essential household items.
Hiring and retaining quality employees in the RTO sector is no walk in the park, especially in today's tough economic environment. We discuss the high turnover rates, the importance of effective collections, and the need for a more rigorous hiring process. Learn about the importance of maintaining strong relationships with both employees and customers to ensure long-term success. Whether you're an industry insider or just curious about how RTO can be a lifeline during these challenging times, this episode offers valuable insights and practical advice for navigating the complexities of the current economy.
Hello and welcome to the RTO Show. I'm your host, pete Hsiao, and today we're talking to somebody who's been a friend of the show since, like day one. Jason Winters, now back with Impact Holdings. Right, that's right. All right, that's what we like to hear some good news there. We're going to get some news on that, but we really want to talk about the economy and how it's affecting RTO right now.
Speaker 1:And listen, ladies and gentlemen, I've had a few people ask me this, so I don't think there's a better person to ask that than Jason, because I think he's been around a long time. We've seen a lot, done a lot. We've been all over the great state of Florida, right Right, in the Tampa Bay area alone. I know that rents went up 17% from pre-pandemic times, right, 17% when somebody's paying $1,000 and now they're paying 17% more. Ouch, when you're paying 15, now you're paying that much more. That's hard. But then it's not just there. You go to the grocery stores. You're going to see that money disappear. Your $50 is now $70. Your $70 is now $100. I mean, it's hard to keep food on the table. And now we've got to figure out how rent-to-own stays relevant, and I think you got a shot at it, man. I think you convinced me at the end of this that rent-to-own is going to be all right.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I'm a little more optimistic than that. You know what I mean Because historically, whenever someone asked me what I do for a living and I tell you, know I, I would tell them I'm in the rental owned industry. There's always questions after that. You know, cause, you know they've got the, they've got the perception out there that you know we're just rolling in the dough where that, where the, you know we're, we're charging this and it costs that and they could get it there, and I don't know what. You know, I don't know why anyone would do that.
Speaker 2:And then then when I start to break down everything that we do do you know what I mean? Then they get oh, yeah, I get it, they. It starts, you know, they start to, and I'm gonna the best way that I always, kind of, when I talk to someone like a new hire or somebody that's new to the business, I tell them the story about when I saw the light of rent on, and it was, uh, I used before I worked at rent a center. I had three jobs. Okay, I worked at a grocery store overnight, I worked at a pizza place from four to 10 delivering pizzas, and then I had like a lunch place.
Speaker 2:I think I told you this story. Did I tell you the whole story with the pizza guy? Yeah, yeah, I told you the whole thing. Yeah, well, it's relevant to the relevant and staying relevant because, again, once you start breaking down what the services and the risks that we take and the, you know the flexibility that we offer and the and how we help the customers through the tough times, you know what I mean. Like we charge what we charge in order to stay alive at the end of the day, there's plenty of stores out there RTO stores that are losing money.
Speaker 1:But there's. So why is it that everybody believes that when they see the amounts, we're making, a ton of money. There's no way that this product can cost this much money. And like, you've got to almost sit down and go well, I've got brick and mortar. When you call, I answer the phone, right, Somebody's always there to answer the phone. We're open six days a week, some cases seven. We're open for 10 hours a day, right, that cost. I got a truck that never charged you to go out there. I got to put gas in that truck, I got to put insurance on that truck. Hold on, we're not done. We don't charge credit, we don't. You know, we give you free service to loaners and, and so we almost have to fight for that. But is that a? Is that a? Is that an awareness issue? Are we failing on an awareness piece?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I I think that the irony is, if anybody's pulled the wool over anyone's eyes, it's the credit industry, because you swipe a card and it's real easy and you think, oh, I got this thing for 250 bucks, yes, but at the end of the day, how much are you really going to pay for it? If you pay the minimum payments and you go yeah, I mean everybody, everybody in RTO has said that a thousand times, but it is 100% true you have no idea what you're going to end up spending on that big purchase at all and how many bad things are going to happen to you between now and the time you actually quote unquote pay it off. I think I said last time that if you swipe a card for a washer and dryer at your Home Depot for $1,800, it's going to take you like 16 years to pay it off on a credit card. I'm going to pay that minimum payment yes, 16 years and somehow we're the quote-unquote ripoff right, like we're the ones because we put the numbers right on the page.
Speaker 2:This is the most it could possibly be. There's about four ways you can get away with paying cheaper. You know what I mean. If it ever breaks, I'm gonna take care of it for you. I'm gonna work it. You know, if I have to switch it out, I'll switch it out. So you gotta move, I'll move it for you. You know what I mean. If you ever have any problems, I'm gonna come over as soon as I can and fix it for you. Like who's like well, home depot's not gonna do that.
Speaker 1:Well, here's the thing too. I always wish that when you buy a car right, because everybody says that, everybody. So you pull up with the new ride and everybody goes, how much did you pay for that? And they'll say, whatever, whatever the, the cost was right. Hey, I paid 25, I paid 27. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's what it was when you signed for it, right? But at the end of your six now six-year deal because that's the average now, at the end of your six-year deal, what have you paid for it then, right, and what is it worth at that point in time?
Speaker 2:right. What about a mortgage? Oh, you know what I mean. How often, how many times do you pay over your mortgage? Like, if you go, you go the whole 30 years. You know what the mortgage? You know what mortgage is, where the word comes from? No, it's Latin, all right, and it's called a death pledge. So you're pledging till death. I'm going to be paying these payments until, like, basically, 30,. Two years is a long time. How many of us would be lucky to have 30 more years, you know?
Speaker 1:what I mean. Here's the question then All right, so the economy's rough, right, we're upfront about our pricing, which sometimes is a little bit scarier than what people know the truth to be. And the truth is, this is what you might pay. Just do the math If you did every monthly payment on your house, if you did every monthly payment on your car, if you decided to pay the minimum, and what do they tell you? The minimum is $40, $60, right. And then what they don't tell you is $57 of that is interest, right, and you get a $3.50 that comes off of it every, and it might eventually compound to the point where you're getting $10 off and $12 off, which is probably more at the end. So they don't tell you that. So then here we are.
Speaker 1:The economy's hitting us hard. It costs harder to put food on a plate, it costs harder to keep something over our head, and then we have that boogeyman approach when you're coming in and they're saying, wow, this washer and dryer over time might cost me this. And I'm not looking at the same as cash, I'm not looking at the ability to early purchase option it. Or I'm not looking at the fact that if I took a lot more money, I can get it paid off sooner and not have to go all that route. Or if I have one service issue, I've probably paid half the price of it already, because somebody is going to come pick it up, which they don't do, or they're not going to leave it here without putting a loaner, because nobody's going to pay for that, and then take care of you and all the money's going straight to it. How do we get around that with customers? How do we get them to see where we stand? Because right now the economy's it's on a death grip, man. So where, where do we stand with that?
Speaker 2:I've always operated under the assumption that the tougher things are that we're going to be okay, and I and I I still hold that to this day. Like the more people that are pushed into our space because they have harder access to credit, the more customers we can potentially have. Now, some of those people might not have thought of us as an option in the past, but now they have to. You know what I mean. So how do I guess? The question would be how do we get in front of those people that you know that would never think to use us in the first place, because they've never been in a situation where they're struggling like they are right now? So many people that more normally would just have a card and they would swipe it and they would get whatever they're talking about. You know they've declared bankruptcy 14 times, but somehow they're better than our customer that comes in and makes their payments and pays it. You know, as best they can. I don't. I don't buy that. I think that we are. We are just as legitimate a place to go for anybody, let alone just quote unquote Poor people, right Like. I hate that, that stigma, and I think that a lot of times, whatever you see the most of is what you think is everywhere. And, yeah, Tampa's tough, Florida's tough, Everybody's rent went up, but I guarantee those houses aren't empty. They still got washers and dryers in them. They still got living room sets in them. They still need to eat dinner with their family, to dine that set. They got to do all that. All that stuff still happens. So as long as we're here to get to the people, I just think that we're going to have customers as long as we're allowed to do this transaction. You know what I mean and I think that the transaction helps the community. It helps people in those situations Everybody wants to talk about.
Speaker 2:Well, you know you get in a Walmart or whatever. Yeah, man, like maybe you could, and if you did, these are all the things that would could happen that Walmart isn't going to care at all about, and these are all the things that we're going to do. If those things happen, you know what I mean. You're never going to have to worry about it and we're going to help you get to it, even if you have to give it back for a while and come back and pick up where you left off. You know, at some point we want to see you own in this item. You know what I mean. And if you see one cheaper or you like more or any of that, no one else is going to offer the flexibility that we offer, so I don't think that we're. Is it tougher to maybe get out there and get sales? Yes, but the one thing we can't do is just say well, you know that store stinks because you know the economy's bad. Well, that might be the excuse they sold themselves of why they're bad.
Speaker 1:Well, that's something I wanted to talk to you about, because I agree with that. You've got employee buy-in right, because they're going through it. Their money isn't going as far as it used to, so their car payments are harder to make. Their rent is hard, so they're putting that obstacle in their own way when they're having these conversations. So we've got items that either cost the same or a little bit more than it used to, because, listen, inflation is everywhere. We're going to feel it too right. We're feeling it too Exactly, so we're trying to overcome.
Speaker 1:Is it a brand awareness thing? Is it an awareness thing in the sense that everybody believes we're high dollar for the same product and it's going to cost us? Are we marketing it the wrong way? And here's an even bigger question If we are, are we not selling it to our guys the right way, the people that work under us, that are really the ones putting it out on the street? Have we not sold to them the right way for them to feel comfortable enough to go? No, I'm not taking too much money from you. Let me explain to you why. This is probably a better deal. Are we doing that right?
Speaker 2:I think that's a very general question with a lot of answers from a lot of different places. In some, you know some companies absolutely and some companies maybe not so much. But at the end of the day, it's all you can. You can only control your own business or, in your case, like you know, like your region or district or division or whatever, like you can only worry about what's going to happen in your, within your four walls, or however many walls you have in your stores. And the bottom, the bottom line is we aren't selling TVs and laptops and computers and furniture. We're selling ourselves and our service. That's what we're selling. They can get this stuff. Yes, they could get it cheaper, but they're not going to get us. So if we allow ourselves to devalue ourselves and what we offer, maybe they are paying a little over what they should pay. You know what I mean. At the end of the day, the customer's reviews are going to tell you how you're doing. You know what I mean. But no one ever felt cheated in a store that has great service, you know, and that works with them and talks to them like a human being and understands what they're going through and helps them through the hard times. No one ever felt cheated in those stores and if they did, they made it right. You know, because the only thing you can do is make sure that everybody feels like you took care of them. You can do is make sure that everybody feels like you took care of them. You know, like we, we struggle a lot in certain stores for reviews, like the only people, the only the only reviews you ever get from a, from a customer, are bad. Well, that's because they only people that felt strongly about your service felt bad about it. You know, the rest of the people that were there, it was okay. Well, that that it was okay. He's not going to keep a customer around forever. It's not going to get. I'm going to get there. Next thing Meh, never made anybody excited, but we got to win them over that powerful personality, right? Or, you know, just be there when you said you're going to be there and do what you said you were going to do. Take the extra step of wiping it down before you leave, ho, showing it to them, making sure it works, making sure they understand it. You know what I mean. Then calling back and making sure that the guy that delivered it did that, or having them call on the spot to the store and then finding out if there's any issues that might pop up in a review that comes out later. You know what I mean. You can head them off at the pass.
Speaker 2:A lot of this stuff can be solved in the sale, like you said. Are we selling it to the people, right? I? The sale, like you said, are we? Are we sell it to the to the people, right? I don't know. You know that's. That's a different, there's a different answer for that.
Speaker 2:In every store that you can, that you're going to be in. But you can find it out because it's going to be the evidence of it not being that way is going to be obvious. It's going to be obvious in the performance. It's going to be obvious in the gross or lost is going to be obvious with the customer reviews. It's all going to be screaming at you. You know what I mean. And it's harder to find like if there's that many people that are out there strapped right now the last I checked we pay pretty good comparably to other places that they could be doing a lot harder work. You know what I mean and as long as you find a way to get that level of employee that you can build a business with and not just reach across the interview table and take their pulse. Oh, they read it all. They can pass the truck test.
Speaker 1:Great, they're on the truck. Listen, I'm so glad that you talked about that, because here's the thing In rent to own right now and a lot of people are not going to want to talk about it, but it's an elephant in the room Our turnover rates right now in a lot of companies, including rent to own, is pretty high. So I agree with you wholeheartedly right, you've got to get your guys involved to create the relationship and we've got to have a wow factor that makes it to the Google reviews. Right, we have to have a wow factor that's going to make it to. I want to tell somebody else in the referral part, not just because I'm getting money back, right, or I get money off, but because I actually want to, and that's where we're going to set ourselves apart.
Speaker 1:But now here's the other side of the coin We've got. Right now, you could have one side that says we don't and one side says we do. I'm going to tell you this right now, at this particular point, even though the unemployed rate is going up, it's still pretty damn low, right? So we have a low employment rate. Then why are we turning and burning so much? And the question is, when you turn and burn, how hard it is again to get that new individual set into the culture that you tried to create, where you're making relationships with those people and they're selling it to them. So you got to resell that employee right there. I feel like that's where we're losing it.
Speaker 2:I believe it's in the, I believe it's in the hiring process. Right, I think that we're just desperate. We'll take. You know what I mean. We hate.
Speaker 2:Being shorthanded in an RTO store is the worst. You know what I mean. It's the worst. It's the worst. Like you got a million phones ringing million calls to make. You got, you know, your, your dm or whoever is yeah, is screaming for a sales and screaming, you know, screaming for you.
Speaker 2:The only way we can really connect, uh collect effectively nowadays, I, I feel, is in the truck. You know, I mean the phones. You gotta send your text, you gotta make your calls, but I mean you're gonna get ignored quite a bit and showing up on the doorstep is just. I think that's the way you gotta go, unfortunately. And who wants to do that? You're gonna have to ignored quite a bit and showing up on the doorstep is just. I think that's the way you got to go, unfortunately. And who wants to do that? You're going to have to pay for it at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:And I read a book recently that said, if you had to pretend, it didn't say exactly this, but it said you had to pretend. Like everyone you hire can never be fired for the rest of their life. They're a lifetime person Like can never be fired for the rest of their life. They're a lifetime person Like you. If you, if that was how you hired people and you knew you could never fire them, if you let them on your team, how differently would you go about the process of hiring them in the first place?
Speaker 1:I don't know if I man, we're going to talk for a long time. I'm going to get to know you very well. Right, that's a. That's a great statement and that's a great approach. Because if I can't get rid of you, number one that's on me, which I hate things being on me I want everything that's on me to be a hundred percent. If it's not, I want to correct it. But if you make that statement and now you've got to hold onto it, how hard do you fight to make sure it's right?
Speaker 2:if it doesn't go right, and how many people and how many stores and how many teams are held back from the fear of being shorthanded.
Speaker 1:Okay, the fear is rampant. If you haven't been into a rent-to-own store lately, if you own them or if you run them, let me tell you everybody's terrified of losing who they have, because it is hard to make those good marketing decisions when it comes to the right person, because that person is building relationships. That person deals with the money that you bring in all the time. That person is residual all the time. So, whether they're selling the payment again on the product or they're getting new products sold, that's a huge investment. It's huge.
Speaker 1:And that's where I'm kind of wondering how do you keep that culture rolling? Because it's been hard to keep people in, and I'm not saying that not everybody's getting it right. I think sometimes you can do it all right and still get the wrong answer, but then you've got to do it all over again. And when you got people that are not sold on this economic battle, man, that's this costs more, this costs more I don't know why I want to spend that much money. And you got the new guy who doesn't know how to sell it now and you're in trouble.
Speaker 2:But you can fix it you, you, you have, you have when you're a store manager, you and it should be this way and I can't speak for every company, but the ones that I've been lucky to be with it's you. You kind of have your own, you build your. You should be building your own team, hiring your own people, deciding who can cut the mustard, who can't, who's going to stay, who's gone can cut the mustard, who can't, who's gonna stay, who's gone, and what a level of acceptance that you're gonna accept from them and the. And the good news is, if they meet your expectation and your expectation is high enough, everybody makes money. You know what I mean. Like I really think that there's very few industries where the sky's the limit, and this is one of them. You can make as much as you want, no lie, no, you, you just have to force your boss to pay you that. Because you're so valuable, because you perform so well, because you grow so much, you take such great care of the customers, you're always finding business. You're not, you know, you're not going to lay down and come up with. You become an excuse to source and be like well, you know the good kind of me.
Speaker 2:And and it said there was raining yesterday and I couldn't. You know, and you hear them all the time and if you accept them, you're like, oh man, that stinks the economy. Yeah, you know what the economy does stink, you know? All right, oh well, that's the reason. That's an easy reason. You didn't ask like four more questions that maybe would get to the root cause of what the real issue is. I mean, I'll listen to any excuse you got. If you can prove to me that everything you were supposed to do you did, then we can start talking about the economy. You know what I mean? I've heard every excuse in the book. I've been doing it a long time. I was a district manager since 2016. I've heard every single reason that you can possibly hear about why a store was failing or struggling or having a bad week or a month or a year or whatever it is. And at some point I just don't want to hear it. Did you make every single call that you were supposed to make? Did you do every single run that you were supposed to do? How does your store look? Did you get 100% on your store appearance checklist? Is all your high idle on the floor? Is everything? Then we can start talking about, then we can go out back and we'll commiserate out how bad the economy is.
Speaker 2:But at the end of the day, I can't control the economy. I can control I can only can control what's happening inside these four walls. And if I'm doing everything right, all right, then we'll start looking outside. But but the thing is, you're almost never going to be doing everything right. You're never, you almost never, going to be doing everything right. You're never, you're never going to be looking over under every rock for every sale. It's just not happening. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But when you have that store where your, your bar is great service, not good service, not meh, not something that no one would want to write home about, or it was meh guy showed up, he had his shirt, was untucked and he drug it in and he scraped it on the door. But you know, yeah, he was nice to me, you know it was okay. No one's gonna go in there and say you know they're gonna waste their time to put a review in if the only people that feel strongly are the ones that sometimes it is outside of your control, that you're gonna be late to that, to the delivery. The truck broke down, the guy called out sick, like there's a million reasons that you can to be late to that, to the delivery. The truck broke down, the guy called out sick, like there's a million reasons that you can actually be late that aren't outside, that are outside your control, and then that customer gets upset or someone says something rude to them or something like that. Yeah, those are going to happen and those are always going to happen, because it's just life. It's just. You know, life happens.
Speaker 2:You're not going to give every person great service every single time. Unfortunately. It would be great if you could. It's just not a thing in this space that I know of. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But if you can limit them and have just as many people that go, wow man, I mean they called and asked if they could come early. They showed up, he put the thing in a blanket, he brought it in like it was a baby. You know what I mean. That's the kind of thing that's going to get more people. Then they're going to get referrals. I mean I feel like the business is out there. The business is always out there. You know all we got to do. Every store has 1,000 customers. They're just not all around the same time. You know what I mean. And it's really going to be managed to what the store manager can handle. And if you got a bunch of people and if you just like, how do we hire? Like, how do we find the people? Like, do we want the people that are out there with no job right now? Do we want those people?
Speaker 1:Well, I've always said the people out there that we want to hire already have a job. They do, they already have a job. When you're talking about a 4% unemployment rate, whoever you want is already working, they're already working. So you've really got to broaden your scope and go. Okay, if I was going to be in this business, what are the traits that this business has that I think somebody could be able to really knock it out of the park? I don't know if you know somebody being in this particular. You know if somebody, an artist, would be a great person to have in here. I mean, they might think outside the box, but this is a very physical business as well. You've got to be able to have customer relations. You've got to be able to lift things. You've got to be able to deal with things. That some that I think we can do very well. You know, and and not trying to leave out the, the, the rental wheel crowd, because there there has a little bit of you know we don't talk about them enough, but they have a particular set and theirs is tires and wheels, right, and they and they're still they seem to be still in it, and we've got a billion more products than that, a million more products than that. A million more products that go in the home and not necessarily out of the home, and yet they're doing an extremely well. What are we doing?
Speaker 1:The economy gets brought up to me so many times because a lot of people are afraid of where it's headed. And the truth is and I'll say it again and again and again, in the election year, you're always going to get the instability. Everybody's kind of curious as to where, what direction we're going to go in, and who's. Is this going to be about energy? Is this going to be about women's rights? It depends on where you stand on the spectrum. Is it going for you? Is it not necessarily going for you? But it's kind of going for you middle left, middle right. The truth is this it doesn't matter where you stand, at the end of the day, january is still going to be January and you still got to figure this all out and you've got to back yourself up with the right people that are going to help you be successful.
Speaker 1:But the economy is like this big boogeyman. A lot of people are worried because we have higher rates, we have inflation, and the truth is, is that an inflationary period and you have a lot of people stepping out of the game. You've got a lot of restaurants that are closing down. You've got a lot of businesses that are no longer in business, that kind of do the same thing we do. They're not around anymore, and I can tell you, right now, the Tampa Bay area is flooded with rent to own, and it doesn't matter who you are.
Speaker 1:I can name five different names that are here right now in the Tampa Bay area with more than one location, and the question is how are we all going to fare? Well, we might end up consolidating a little bit, we might bring them home, right, we might not need three stores, we might need two, we might need one, but then all that does is leave the people more relevant to do what they need to do to secure what we have out there. That makes the customer almost that much more important. And so, yeah, we're going to have people fall off, and I think that's just the nature of the beast. The question is where are the rest of them at? Who's walking in to replace them? And I wanted to ask that today.
Speaker 1:So I really feel like there is a bottom end that's starting to fall out because a couple of reasons. Number one Gen Z, starting with them and even going to Gen Alpha. They review us way differently than Gen X and millennials. They don't look at us the same at all, and so how do we get them back? I don't know. Do we need to wait till they get older? Do we need to reach up to a? A lot of people say we're a $50,000 a year business. Right, if you have 50 to $55,000, that's a sweet spot, that's where you're at, that's who we're going for Nowadays. I don't know if $55,000 acts like a $39,000, right, with inflationary period. I think sometimes, to beat this economy, we need to start, like you said, upping our values and making sure that we're taking care of the customer, because we might need to start reaching up $65,000, $75,000 because their spending power now is not what it used to.
Speaker 2:I don't know Again, like I, I I see what you're talking about and I go, I can go down there with you, but at the end of the day it's still. It's still a guy with a shingle on outside of building that's willing to take, you know, a couple of like work with your payment schedule. You're always going to have even those gen X's and A's and alpha whatever you say. I mean mean they're all gonna have kids, you know. I mean they're all gonna have an apartment that needs something. They're always. They're always gonna be people that want something nice, that work hard.
Speaker 2:The single mom that's gotta, you know, wants to take night classes and need the laptop there's gonna be. You know people don't want to go to the laundromat. There's going to be people that just you know they want to be able to come home and enjoy their home and it's always going to be there. Man, like I know how it feels and especially if you're on the struggle bus and and everybody's, you know the credit's high and the sales are low and I know that's how you sign off every day. Sometimes they're there, sometimes it's the opposite. Keep your credit as high as your sales are low.
Speaker 1:Well, here's, here's a question that I wanted to ask because, based on what's the trending areas, right, I try to take a look at and to apply to our situation and rent to own, and how are we going to tackle this if it ends up coming down the road, because usually rent-to-own follows two or three years is going to be our doorstep whether we like it or not. And so, right now, what I've heard I've heard several people say this is that the younger generations, they're pay plan generations. Right, they don't own that much, they just pay right. So is the idea of rent-to-own going to have to go to a point where it's a rent to rent situation? Sure, maybe Lower payments, but then you swap it out every so often. I'm not going to pay what this is, to pay it out. What I'm going to do is basically, yeah, we're basically just leasing it to leasing it. You know what?
Speaker 1:This year I want to do all black. This year, I want to do all red year, I want to do all red. This year I want to go with the traditional, I want to go more, you know, I want to go funky. I want to get that blue velvet bedroom set that just looks amazing and I'm going to make small payments on it because I don't really ever expect to own it. Is that? Is that, uh, you know that that base of just making small payments because ownership is not a really a big idea, is that? Is that something that you think might ever be viable?
Speaker 2:Oh man, like I can't, and maybe I am out of touch, I don't know. As far as I can see, I wouldn't want to just pay, pay, pay into something myself, like I could just speak for myself. I wouldn't want to just pay, pay, pay and pay and then keep paying and then never own it at all. But maybe I'm, you know, maybe different from the, from the generation coming up. You know what I mean. But at the end of the day I'll let the business, the market, will tell us, like the market's gonna tell us and maybe they're starting to tell us right now, like you said. But it I mean, but as long as there's still stores out there that are making it happen somewhere. We just we got a lot of times when you're on a multi-unit, like you go into a store that has a big problem or takes a big dive and you go down and go, what happened? You do like you want to, you go through everything. How did this happen to us? How, what happened? How often we do that to the good ones, you know what I mean. How often do we do a deep dive into why is this store awesome, like? Why do they consistently hit their standards? Why are they always growing? I mean, maybe we spend like you we call it I've heard it called an autopsy right, like we go in, you just have this horrible situation with a store. It loses 100 agreements and you know it's just falling apart and all the people left and it's just a big mess and you got to go in there. And why don't we do an autopsy and find out what happened here? Like, well, what happened? But how often are we going into autopsy? It's not an autopsy if you're going into a healthy business, but why? What makes them great? And then, 99% of the time, 99.999% of the time, it's going to be because the four or five people in there on the same page, they all have a high expectation of themselves and their customers and they know that they deserve the money that they're asking for.
Speaker 2:How often? Because the stores that typically struggle with collections. You go in there and you find out what's going on. Why are they struggling so bad? You find out they're late to all their deliveries. The service is never getting taken care of. They're delivering half the stuff they're not showing. You know what? What I mean? Like it's just 99 percent of the time. They don't deserve to do. They don't deserve it.
Speaker 2:Like you're calling me for a payment and I'm still waiting on my nightstand. You're calling, you know, oh yeah, oh, you're gonna call me now because my payments due but my tv still got 10 pixels out, and you know what I mean. Like it's got that deadly line in the right but no, that's no big deal. But my payment, that's no big deal. But my payment, that's a big deal, right, and how many? We've all heard those calls like we everybody gets them all the time, and that's almost always the stores that deserve the money get the money. You know what I mean, because they did what they said they were going to do. They sat down with them in the beginning, made sure everybody was on the same page, and that's another thing. Is more than anything is that we. Everybody wants to live in an Amazon world where you just order stuff online and shows up the next day and everything, and that guy goes away. When's the last time you put in a review on an on an Amazon driver?
Speaker 1:Dude, I get you know what. I get them every time, every time. Rate your driver, skip rate your driver. I actually don't do it.
Speaker 2:Nobody does it because they're a faceless person that just dropped the box, maybe kicked it up the driveway, up the near doorstep and left. But we got to figure out how to do an Amazon transaction, because that's obviously what the customers are telling us that they want. But we got to be able to do the RTO service, like we got to be able to figure out how they, how we can get them to understand the terms of the agreement in the beginning. And because I really think that that's the last piece, I don't think people back in your, in me and you, when we were running our stores, we would.
Speaker 2:The customer would come in and they would. They would walk around the store and it's sitting this one and it's sitting that one, and they go what do you think, honey? No, I don't like the blue one. And they'd have an argument and then you'd figure out which one was going to work and the one was usually going to win. And then you would go and you'd type up the contract and you'd try to get them with the tables and the lamps and the rugs and everything else, and you'd finally figure out what it's going to be. And then what happened? You'd sit down and you'd go line by line like a robot and you go through this. This is the same as cash.
Speaker 1:You know what the funny story is? I don't mean to cut A funny story. I have a harder time going over an agreement if it's facing me than if it's facing you. So you could go in, I'm way better upside down. And I flipped it over the other day and I was like, oh, wait a minute, listen. I had to flip it back around. I was like, okay, it was. It's crazy, because you get so used to it when you're going over it and and I mean I'm a line for line person too I, I really don't like the skibble. I don't want to be like, yeah, this, this is what this means. No, let's read it out. Let's go, let's get a couple keywords in here so that you can see that you can return it with no problem. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:no issues and uh how many online customers have you done it with recently, or any of your people that there's were full online? They found you on the website. They did the thing you did. You called them up, they faxed you or sent you pictures or whatever it was. I mean, you can't call me out like that man. It's not just you, it's not, it's us, it's everybody like it's we don't. We don't. We haven't caught like, we haven't figured out how to be us like we used to be, because we've lost that part of the sale. Like the sale is now click, click, it shows up. That's what. So when is the last time your driver was able to go?
Speaker 1:okay, this is how this all you know, I actually did something about that in the last couple of classes and it was how important the driver is, because lately I think we've gotten away from the idea that, you know, we always put them on the bottom and I'm not really sure why of the importance ladder right. It is the most important job, especially because not only they how many times do we have our guys running and it ends up being the driver? How many times is it them the one delivering, delivering, doing the service or asking them questions? How many times are they the ones inside the home? How many times are they the ones talking to the references on the side of this? You know, hey, the Miss Jones has a neighbor or somebody sees me knocking over here and you're going to tell me that that's the guy you pay the least and you pay the least attention to.
Speaker 2:And that's we fix that. We fix a lot. You know what I mean. You came along probably at the same time I did. I think we talked yeah, it was pretty close. Yeah, like 13 bucks an hour, I think at the time. 48 hours a week, and that's what all the sometimes the big weeks forget. You used to have 48 hours. Oh, it was completely 48 hours.
Speaker 1:Look everybody was there for 48 to 50 hours. Post-pandemic was 40 hours, but let me tell you, even going into the pandemic, we were at 45. I mean, everybody made 45 hours and then somebody somewhere said, hey, man, we can get it done in 40. And I'm not saying that we can't, I'm saying, when you're relating it to back, then yeah, you were working a 45-hour week minimum, then yeah, you were working a 45-hour week minimum, but I remember I was at 48.
Speaker 2:And as a matter of fact, a whole week more manpower hours to work with, exactly Than we do today. Absolutely. So now do we have a lot of technology that makes a lot of things a lot easier? Yeah, I guess. So. In some cases, they just have more ways to avoid us. You know what I mean. You're texting them, you're emailing them, ways to avoid us. You know what I mean. You're texting them, you're emailing them, you're calling them, you're doing all these different things, but how often do you really talk to a pass-through customer, is it? It's less and less in my, in my experience.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you, for anybody who's listening to this, if you have gone back to a 45 or 48 hour a week. Please hit me up on the. I want to know. I would really like to know how it.
Speaker 2:I think there's people out there that would work that schedule, especially in the economy, like if they're. If you're struggling and you find a job that's guaranteeing you overtime, you know what kind of people you're going to get Workers. You're going to get people that aren't afraid to get dirty. You're going to get people like we're saying, well, we're trying to adjust our models to the only people that only will. And well, you know, people only want to work 40 hours. Yeah, these people only want to work 40 hours. What about the workhorses like us that saw the opportunity at 48 hours a week, with eight hours of overtime every week, and we're like, heck, yes, I'm going there.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, a standard day was and I and when I say standard, it was very standard You'd be in half hour before and half hour late, and you probably took a 30-minute lunch and it was probably on the road. And so then in management, it was an hour before and almost up to an hour after, because you're getting your store ready or you're filling up the holes, you're making sure your files were good before the next day, you're trying to get those last-minute commitments in, and Ms Jones is is telling she'll be there at 7 15, and I ain't no thing, miss jones, I'm gonna be here, you know right, and so that's a I. I completely actually have put that aside, and now I'm thinking about that 48 hours or 45 hours, whatever event. If anybody knows how that is, please let the show know. Send them some dms, send us anything, because I really think that we have lost that.
Speaker 2:I think that's something that went to the wayside, a lot of the great people that you and I know and that have been in the business. That's what they got, that we got them with that offer of a job. You know what I mean? I don't. I'm. The more that I see and the more that I interact with the people that we have. I'm not, I'm not knocking anybody. You know me and I've got a lot of great people and I've seen a lot of great people at a lot of stores. But the ones that are willing to, you know, the ones that will go do that late washer service, the ones that you know, the ones, yeah, I got.
Speaker 2:You got people now that are looking at the clock at 550, just waiting for it to hit six and they're out, they're done. And you know as well as I do when was the time you were going to run was at six. Yeah, because that's when you were going to be able to get contact with the customers. That whole part is gone. You know what I mean and I don't know that it has to be. I don't know that. Like, all I know is that where there's a will, there's a way, and if we're going after, are we going after the right employees. I don't know. You know what I mean. Like how much time are we spending on that part of our life? If I'm a shorthanded store manager, how much of my day is devoted to trying to be not shorthanded anymore, or how much of it is just trying to pick?
Speaker 1:up stuff. It's funny you say that because that's literally what we've been going through for the last month, and so the common statement that we've been using is this is where we are. And in every story, when you find out where we messed up, what do you do? You go back to the beginning. What do you do? Let's go back to the beginning. How do we start? Do we have the right employees? Do we have the right mindset in the store? Are we looking at it the right way?
Speaker 1:Is our glass always half empty or is it half full? I mean, are we looking for the excuse to say that it's okay, we didn't do it because? Are we looking for the reasons that we should have got it done? And what we did was we kind of just fumbled the ball a little bit, and a lot of people don't want to take that. They don't want to say that. They don't want to say I fumbled a little bit.
Speaker 1:It's hard. It's hard to look at yourself and say I didn't do my job, but at the same time, I don't always believe that it has to be black and white. Sometimes I think you can do your job and not get a result. Sometimes I think you can not do your job and get a result, but usually nine out of 10 times it's the process that got you there. If you're doing the right thing, you're going to get the right result, and if you're not doing the right thing, on average, you're not going to get the right result.
Speaker 1:And I think what happens is, as we're coasting out of COVID and things happening yes, we could have gotten it done in 40 hours at reduced situations, and I think now that we're so far out of it, I don't think anybody's not going out to eat anymore because of that. Right, they might be going out because they don't have the money, but they're not going out because they're afraid. They're not staying away from ball games because they're afraid they're nobody stuck outside the church, because they're afraid to do it inside, and they got to do it outside. I think we've already gone back to 100 percent. Rent to own is in 45 hours.
Speaker 2:And are we? Are we missing the boat on? Are we missing the boat on some people that are really like they got three kids to feed and that they want to? You know, maybe they're they're their spouse isn't able to work for whatever Like and you've got to be the main income. You know, are there people out there that would be willing to put in those 48, 50 hour weeks and really get it done if they made enough to be able to provide for that family? You know what I mean. And how many of those people because we're hiring people that are only willing to work 40 hours and are? You know what I mean Are they Trying to stay that extra time that it takes sometimes in this business, especially in the summertime or whatever, to actually get what you need to get done done? You know what I mean. I don't know. Maybe it's something that's worth investigating. Here's a question.
Speaker 1:We're at Jason's Rent to Own, this is your spot, this is what you have. You have the traditional rent to own, you have five spots available and you're trying to pay. Right, you're trying to pay right. You're trying to pay right. You're trying to stay competitive in the market out there, but you can only pay so much labor, right? I mean, economics is economics. You either have it or you don't.
Speaker 1:So what are the chances that you say, okay, I've got to figure out how to beat it, so I've got to get the right people? What is the thought process of going from five to four and giving everybody five hours overtime, right? So you're paying time and a half on that. So you're essentially paying 75% of an extra person. You're saving 25% of a person's salary, but you're giving 75% to everybody else. Now, the GM is going to be whatever the GM is. So in that aspect, I guess you're saving a little bit of money, but you're handing off the rest of it to people who might need it, right?
Speaker 1:Do you think that's enough to solve the problem? Do you think, ok, I'm going to get essentially almost the same work, I'm almost paying the same, but I'm giving enough pay to those people, that it's quality pay, so I can ask, I can ask for the extras Right. Quality pay, so I can ask for the extras, right. And now it's easier to find somebody who's going to work till eight o'clock or you know. Hey, listen, you're going to have to come in a little later, stay a little later or come in a little earlier, and maybe I'll let you go a little earlier. But earlier means eight o'clock, right, it's not? You know, it's not 9.15. Earlier is like eight o'clock.
Speaker 2:And that's when that could really change things. I'd say, like I, I, I would definitely take a run out of that in that direction. You know what I mean. Like, because it's just all about the person. I don't know, though, but I mean, there are stores out there right now making it happen, doing a great job, hitting every standard, growing the business of 40 hours, people. You know what I mean. But I guarantee, in that store, the manager has a high bar of what they'll accept and what they won't. You know so, but those people are meeting it and they're being rewarded for that in most cases, or they're not going to stay, and it's not going to be great for very long because they're going to be like well, but but the truth is, the store that's struggling and the store that's succeeding, they're both working hard most of the time. You know, not in every case, but a lot of times maybe they're just doing the wrong stuff, they're not doing it at the right time. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Maybe, then, 15 runs that the guy just went on at two in the afternoon. You know they didn't see a single person because everybody's at work. By the way, excuse me, but then if they would have made those 15 runs at 6 to 8, they would have got a hold of three or four or five of them. You know what I mean. But we just were doing what we can do. But the door tag on the door is not useless. It makes contact, it reminds them about the payment and everything we get in touch with them. And polite persistence is the only way to collect. Like you got to be polite but you got to be there all the time. Like you got your, your, your recipe that you're going to follow for your collection.
Speaker 2:So, but in my, if it was jason's rent zone, yeah, I would definitely start off with three, four people, I mean, and just we would be, you know, full time. We would be there to get the job done. You know what I mean and how would I be successful? Who knows? You know what I'm saying. But I know that I have a high standard for the service that I would provide. I have a high standard of accountability in my location and as long as people know the rules and how to do well most, I assume that I start with the assumption Everybody wants to do good. So I go into a store and it's not doing doing well, or whatever, I'm going to assume right off. Until I find otherwise, I'm going to. I'm going to assume this store really wants to win but they're losing, so I'm going to try to help them win.
Speaker 2:So what is the best way to solve a problem is to make a list of what's not causing it. Like, just okay, it's not. Is it because they don't care? All right? Well, they care All right, so they care. That's not it. So is it because they are not coming to work? Well, this guy calls out all the time. Well, why are you accepting that? What do you think the other people think about that?
Speaker 1:Oh God, that's that age old thing, man. It starts happening. People are afraid to lose people, so they let them slide. They let them slide to the point where they're creating this negative culture and then, when you want to reel it all back in, you've lost it.
Speaker 2:It's too late. You know what I mean. Like I think you've said that before, I think I've heard you say that with all this stuff. I've said it. I mean, no, it's going to work harder than your, than your laziest guy, cause everybody's always looking and saying, well, if that guy's here, I'm fine, like I, what am I killing myself? Especially if there's no repercussion in the store and no one's doing anything about it, like you're creating to a point. Well, why am I killing myself? Why am I? Why do I care? If he doesn't care and he still gets paid, why do I? Why do I? Why do I care, man?
Speaker 1:that's a store killer right there, I can tell. I can tell you right now, it's a store killer. It happens all the time. If anybody's listening to this that has that situation going on, let me tell you get a grip, make a decision, and it's probably the best decision you've made in a long time. It's gonna.
Speaker 2:It's gonna hurt in the beginning, but at the end of the day, if you can, if you've got a few core people that you can build upon, there's no time like yesterday. You know it's kind of you gotta, you gotta figure it out because it's when it went. It's like the rowboat that I I think I say I might have said it here, but, like you know, if you got a rowboat and you gotta go to the same place and one guy is in the back that isn't pulling his weight, boat's a lot lighter when he's swimming, like because then we should move right. Everybody's just trying to do the same thing, trying to move forward. And if you get everybody going, that, even if it's only two or three people, you can, you can struggle through it. You know what I mean. You're gonna have to be tight with your scheduling and you're going to not be careful not to over-promise the customers and say yes to everything you want to say yes to, but it can be done.
Speaker 2:The main thing, I think, is if we get really, really, really good. Like if if I asked you, if you, what is the key to a business, what would you? The key to a successful business is people. A hundred percent. Everybody would say that answer right, but how many people? How many people do it, though? How many people have the confidence that if, well, this guy doesn't come to work tomorrow, I guess I'm gonna have to let him go? Oh well, that means I'm shorthanded. That's a tough decision to make. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:But if you have no confidence that you could go out there and find somebody to replace them easily, but if you have that skill in your, so how, how hard are you working to develop that skill? What are you really handing out business cards when you go out and you get impressed by somebody that's working hard and maybe says even smiles at you today? That's a big deal. Like oh okay, he greeted me. That's pretty cool. How do you like your job if they like it? Why do you like it if they hate it? Why they hate it? You know? Let me start a conversation. Well, if you ever know anyone looking for, you know we have this and we have that and that, and you give your elevator pitch, and that's how you get candidates start thinking about it, because most of them, especially the hard workers, they just got their head down. They're just trying to make the ends meet.
Speaker 2:They're just trying to make it, they're just trying to make it and then, but if you go, and that's why you got to swim in the circles where maybe you could offer a little more hourly pay than what they're making at that place. You know, I mean, you should stop at this kind of like. I can't. You know, you can't even say it about all the convenience stores anymore, because they pay pretty well. You know why? Because they figured it out and they made it a great job.
Speaker 1:Well, I think a lot of things got figured out post-pandemic. The wages have gone up. They just haven't gone up as fast as inflation has, right, right, so the value of the dollar is going down in more ways than one, and yet we're paying more for our goods. And I think that's one of the things that a lot of people are asking about, because it's harder to get things paid and our dollars are worth a little bit less. So it's not the fact that things are going one way or the other, it's that they're kind of separating. Right, we have one that's going left and one that's going right, and here we are trying to navigate the middle of the whole situation, and I think a lot of people get worried about that, and so when they're sending in the emails and they're sending in the small conversations about the economy and how to overcome it, I think they already know the answer to that question.
Speaker 1:I don't think anything we said on this podcast is going to be like oh my God, oh, they solved it. That was the one thing I needed to hear. I think it's all that they needed to hear. I think it's that refresher course of you. Can't just let it beat you down to the point where you believe it's going to beat you. You have to have the mindset, the killer mindset the economy is going to be the economy and there's nothing we can do about it. But I don't think the R2O industry is going to just turn heel and say you know what, let's just get out of the business.
Speaker 2:I can't believe that that had ever happened. Because that that had ever happened, you know what I mean. Because there's always, there's always going to be like. There's always going to be a way forward, man, like if you, we offer a service to people that need it at the end of the day, and they're always going to be there. There's always going to be young families. There's always going to be, you know, people that have had bad pasts. You know what I mean that they went down the wrong road and now they're trying to do better. There's always going to be students. There's always going to be everybody Like we, we can provide something to somebody that needs it.
Speaker 2:So what we got to. The only thing we can control, though we can't control the economy, we can't control COVID, we can't control anything, but we can control what's happening within our four walls no-transcript. But maybe it is something that you're doing or not doing, you know. Maybe you haven't looked under every rock. Maybe you haven't gone to every apartment complex within a five mile radius to make a relationship with the people that work in the office. Maybe you haven't gone to every single you know shopping center and every other business in your shopping center to offer them a neighbor discount. Maybe you haven't just put the flyers out.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. How come you? Maybe you haven't gone five up, five down, maybe just maybe you haven't worked every reference and try to get them on rent. Maybe you didn't convert every single pit. Maybe you didn't do that whole call. Is you just pencil whipped it the other day? Maybe didn't really run those customers? You know what I mean, because if you do all of that, there's more than enough. There's more than enough things to work on that you can't control before I'll sit down and commiserate with you, but which. You know what's outside, outside the walls. You know what I mean and that if you have that mentality as a leader, that's what that store needs. They need you to come in and say, okay, well, we can't control that, but we can control this. You know that didn uncontrolled, that didn't make your truck dirty, that didn't make your showroom look like a mess.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean when everything's perfect in here, we'll go out there and we'll all cry together. Man, I completely agree. Listen, I subscribe to the idea that necessity is the mother of all inventions, and if we're looking for things to pop out of thin air, it's not going to happen. We have to really be looking on, focusing on a solution, and when we need that solution, we'll find it. We'll find a way to make it happen. Nature does it, we do it too. There's one thing about the human spirit is resilient, and if somebody has an idea that they really want to come across, they really want a problem solved, they want to get to, we'll find it it.
Speaker 2:Eventually we'll find. Well, someone will. And as long as we can work together as a, as an industry, right, and, you know, share best practices openly as possible, like everybody's gonna want their own little secret sauce and everybody should. You know what I mean, because everybody's looking for it. It's called competition. You know what I mean. Healthy competition. Healthy competition is very, very important because that's what pushes everybody to the heights of thinking. I mean, that's just the way. That's good, that's great, like we should have that. But at the same time, like as an industry, if we're going to hit headwinds, we're going to hit them together and we're going to and I think we do a pretty good job in this industry.
Speaker 2:Like you, you see it probably way more than I do. You know what I mean, but more than I do, you know what I mean, but you know that that struggle is real. When you hear, you know, 15 different owners are saying it. You know what I mean. Okay, well, yeah, there's really something going on here, but sooner or later one of those guys is going to get a knock, it's going to figure it out, and then he might, he might. What was he doing over there? Like he's doing good, you know what I mean, because someone is always doing it right and 99% of the time it's the stuff they tried to teach you on your first day that you aren't doing.
Speaker 1:There's no secret sauce. It's the sauce that's already there and we overlook it. Listen, if you come across that secret sauce, let me know. Yeah, I'll take some of that secret, send the DMs over here and let's figure it out. Listen, guys, we appreciate all the time that you spend with us over here and let's figure it out. Listen, guys, we appreciate all the time that you spend with us. The economy is going through it, and so are we, but it doesn't mean we can't win. And you got to. You got to have the right mindset. You've got to hire the right people. You've got to focus on what you can achieve and not what you know. You can't Work on your processes and start from the beginning. Don't let the excuses get in your way. And, most of all, have a glass half full. Mindset, man, it's just the way it is, that's what they need.
Speaker 2:Man, that's what you walk in there Like. In that same book. I will share it again. But basically he said don't be a drain of energy in your store. Don't like, don't take away energy. You got to bring it Right. So in spades you got to bring the energy. You can't just take it. You can't leave with all the energy from the store. I mean you got to come in there and add stuff. You got to make sure and show them all the things that you think might help them and make sure that they did it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And as long as they know that you have their best interest at heart, that you're there to help them, and then when they win, you win and everybody wins together. Then together, Then that's the relationship that's going to fix and get through these tough times. And I'm not going to sit here and say they're not tough times. They are tough times, but there are guys out there doing it. So if you have some in your area that are doing it, that store that's always hitting the credit and making you look bad. Just call them up and take them to lunch and say what is it or it and making you look bad. Just call him up and take him to lunch and say what is it, or have them come visit you and see what's going on. And as long as you can get that relationship, we might learn something. He might be able to see something in your story you can take back to his.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, if I was to look at any one particular part of it, I think one of the biggest parts of it that I can see has an overwhelming reach into everything that we do is the leadership. It's just you can't get away from it, right, You've got to come in and you've got to be able to wrangle your guys together and show them the light at the end of the tunnel when they're flailing. You've got to be able to. This is where we're going. Oh, I don't know if we can do it. Just do one thing at a time, Follow the processes. We'll get there together. Let me give you the insight, Let me give you the vision. Let me kick your butt when you're not doing what you're not supposed to. You know, when you're kind of going out of the lines, don't color outside of the lines, right. When we knock on doors, we really knock on doors and we have those conversations and they're not good conversations and sometimes they're terrible conversations, but they got to be had. And sometimes, when you see that guy coming late, you know what You've got to have that unpleasant conversation of hey man, you can't be that guy on Jason's boat because he's going to kick you off, Right, that's just the way it goes. And you know the processes are there because they're successful processes. They lead you to the promised land at some point way, shape form.
Speaker 1:And I do agree that, yeah, it's hard. It is hard, man, I'm not going to tell you that it's not hard. I'm getting my butt kicked too, but I think we can get through this and I think that there's light at the end of the tunnel. I don't think the economy is going to go third country. It's not a third world country where you're just like, oh my God, bread is like $50. It's going to be hard.
Speaker 1:As long as we get through that, together with the mindset of we've got to give them value for what they're doing. There's got to be a value to it, because the transaction alone is not going to see it as a value. We've got to make it a value. And you know what We've got to hold ourselves accountable to their values. You know, are we like you said? Are we there on time? Are we doing what we say we're going to do? And did we even explain it to them in the beginning so they understand what they're held accountable for? Or do we just kind of take it for granted, and we call them up.
Speaker 2:We got to get our stores back into the rental home business? Yeah, we do. How many calls have you heard where it's? Just, they don't have any concept of it. It's a rental, it expires At the end of it. You have three options you can either keep paying for it, you can pay it off, or you can return it and the bill goes away. That's it. It's that simple. It's that simple. It's really simple. And as long as they understand that and if you don't renew it, technically it's like you rented a car and you didn't return it they're going to call you. We're going to call you to try to recover our property. But at the end of the day, if they understand it, you got a way better chance of getting them to pay for it or at least communicate with you when they get it.
Speaker 2:I think there's so many customers out there that have no idea what, what, what we do. And there's employees I say when are you going to make your payment? Friday, okay, and then they don't come Friday. Can you come in tomorrow? Yeah, I'll be there Thursday, but no, that's not the right conversation. You know what I mean and what you said earlier. Like one of the really smart guys I work with.
Speaker 1:He always says it all the time you got to be the calm in the storm, yeah you know you got to be the north and the compass man you do, and so I think you know, getting to a point where everybody can see you that way is also the trick too. You've got to be consistent. You can't come in one day and be that that, that northern star, and then the other day I'm talking, guys, they're gonna keep us, we're not gonna get it right, and you know, um, and it's a consistency, man, and I think that it it falls back to your fellow, whether it be your, your colleagues, whether it be your home staff and the people that are backing you up. You got to learn when to let it out and where to let it out, because, man, you can't do that in front of the staff. You got to let them know man, it's, it's all right, it's gonna be all right. No, there's stuff falling out of the sky. Hey, man, it's gonna be all right it is gonna be all right.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be all right. It's gonna be all right like we're gonna get through this. You might have to go out back and scream, but you come back in and get yourself together. You know what I mean. But that's why they pay the manager more money, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:You got to get through the stress points. I always tell everybody nobody's going to be in rent to own unless you've had an adventure. And they go. Well, what's an adventure? Okay, when you go to Ms Jones's house and she's suffering from the fact that she didn't make ends meet or she got let go from a job or something like that, she's going to give you one. You got to deal with it. Or somebody tosses something off the top of the third floor and you're like son of a gun. Or you're taking something down from the third floor. You're halfway to the truck and then just water, it's raining, boom, it's Florida. You're just soaked and you get back to the store and you're like I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that moment when this happened, when that was the adventure. That's it now. Now you're in it, now you're going to take away something that you're never going to forget until you have one of those and you make it through it. It can't be I quit you. That's not getting through it, it's getting getting through. It's like man, I'm soaked and I still got to go back and I still got to make some calls. You remember that time when we got soaked and we was making them calls, man, I was there until like eight o'clock, dude. Those are the ones that help build that character and it starts marrying you into.
Speaker 1:This is not a perfect position. It is a great position, but great positions come with a lot of changes and opportunities and growing. I've grown so much because I've seen so many things and I've learned that not all customers are there not to pay or to pay. Some people are just. They're just visitors, man. They're going to visit for three months and then they're going to be out of your hair. And there's going to be some people that are going to visit you for two years and they're going to visit you for two years and they're going to visit you for two years after that and then you're going to get someone who's going to get you for a week and then you'll never see them again. And that's life and that's part of it.
Speaker 1:But getting through it and being that focal point where your guys can get behind you and they can see that listen, it happened. We did everything we could. We did all the processes right, we went down that road, we explained it, we verified, we did everything. You know what this happened. What do we do Again, necessities of mother of all invention. What can we do again next time so that we don't go into this situation and find a way to breed achievement and breathe excellence in what we try and do and say we do?
Speaker 1:Economy is not going to kill us. It's hard though it's hard. It just makes the road full of mud, but it doesn't take the road away, it just makes it a little bit more difficult. Guys, I appreciate you being with us. Jason, as always, some great insights. And Judge Jason never catches you and he tells you man, you're full of it, you better do that. He's going to get you off the boat. But listen, guys, we appreciate it all. If you have any questions about the show or anything that you want to talk about about this particular podcast, hit us up on the DMs on Facebook, instagram or LinkedIn. You can find us at the RTO Show. You can email me at pete at the rtoshowpodcastcom and, as always, I will always tell you this guys, keep your collections low to get your sales high. Have a good one.
